Tnemec Tank of the Year Voting Microsite

49.7%

of Traffic from Social

296

Total Nominations

90K

Page Views

The Challenge

For nearly a century, Tnemec Company, Inc. has been a leading manufacturer of coatings and coating systems for exterior and interior environments. Founded on product innovation, the company has sustained its pioneering heritage with the development of high-performance industrial coatings, designed for a range of applications from superior abrasion, chemical and corrosion resistance to interior linings, seamless flooring and wall systems, and fluid-applied thermal insulation. Tnemec additionally specializes in industrial coatings, including coatings you might find on your local water tank.

Since 2006, Tnemec has named a Tank of the Year from hundreds of nominated water tanks from around the country. Tank of the Year winners are true testaments to the creative and innovative uses of Tnemec coatings. Water tanks of all structural varieties across the nation have been named Tank of the Year. For the past decade, Tnemec's Tank of the Year contest has found one winner from the field that rose above the competition.

The Tank of the Year contest started as a way to recognize the loyal customers and honor those involved. The goal at the time was to grow the project profiles and strengthen relationships with the architects, engineers, and contractors. The voting process was manual – using binders for each tank to collect votes. That’s when the thought of voting online came to light, and with it, the ability to allow the public to be involved in the voting process.

The Solution

Tnemec partnered with emfluence to create a micro website that is made up of a 200+ tank thumbnail gallery. The photos in the gallery are Tnemec client uploads, with additional information provided by the client who is nominating his or her tank for Tank of the Year. Each tank image opens a larger view with location, description, HydroFlon identifier, and option to vote. When voting, users must enter first and last names, along with email address. Users also have an option of opting in to the monthly Tnemec newsletter. After a user votes, a modal appears thanking the user for voting and allowing them to share on both Facebook and Twitter.

As votes come in, the top 5 tanks display at the top of the gallery. In 2017, emfluence added permalinks to each tank, allowing users and sales representatives the ability to share a specific tank prior to voting.

All submissions are fed into the emfluence Marketing Platform, and those who opt in for future communication are also fed into a newsletter group for later communication.

Once votes are tallied, the People's Choice tank (i.e., the tank with the most votes on the microsite), along with 11 committee-determined water tanks, are featured on Tnemec's annual calendar. Finally, the Tank of the Year winner is chosen by Tnemec from those top 12 finalists.

This contest has grown from attracting just architects, engineers, and contractors to engaging whole communities with the Tnemec brand. What was once a small thank you campaign has become a true brand awareness contest engaging a wide range of community members.

In 2017, the Tank of the Year campaign saw a record number of tanks nominated (296), plus 90,788 page views in just two weeks. 49.7% of 2017 campaign traffic came from social media. Overall, there have been 46,764 votes cast since the site launch in 2014.

“
This microsite grew the contest to the attention of communities and individuals that might not have known the Tnemec brand. Creative water storage tanks have always been around, but we would like to think that the contest has pushed the water industry to think outside the box and not just paint tanks sky blue with a town name on them. ”